http://myfinlife.com Finance blog: read, write, think. Sat, 13 Mar 2010 05:24:14 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Want to be the first one on your block with a 3-D television? It will cost you about $3,000. Samsung and Panasonic will start selling 3-D TVs in U.S. stores this week, inaugurating what manufacturers hope is the era of 3-D viewing in the living room. But ... http://myfinlife.com/you-knew-it-was-coming-3d-tv/ The debate over gun control is heating up at Starbucks.Gun owners bearing arms have been gathering at various Starbucks locations in states where it's legal to do so in public. That's sparked protests from gun-control advocates and kudos from pro-gun groups.The coffee chain says that its stores simply ... http://myfinlife.com/starbucks-in-crosshairs-on-gun-control-debate/ Revamped pizza and a frank advertising campaign helped Domino's Pizza Inc. more than double its fourth-quarter profit as curious customers tried out its new recipe, the chain said Tuesday. Executives have said the chain decided to start overhauling its recipes more than 18 months ago after mounting ... http://myfinlife.com/dominos-finds-recipe-to-success/ Harry Markopolos spent nine years fruitlessly trying to convince the Securities & Exchange Commission that Bernard Madoff's investment operation was a scam.Markopolos, a former derivatives fund manager turned fraud investigator, became an instant star after Madoff's fund imploded, emerging as one of the few sympathetic figures of the ... http://myfinlife.com/madoff-hunter-hes-the-lowest-form-of-scum/ Aqua America Inc. posted nearly flat income on a revenue increase in the fourth quarter, as earnings per share met analysts’ estimates and revenue did not. The Bryn Mawr, Pa.-based water and wastewater utility holding company earned $26.7 million, or 20 cents per fully diluted share, in the quarter. ... http://myfinlife.com/aqua-america-meets-earnings-expectations-but-revenues-miss/ U.K. manufacturers said credit constraints eased in the past two months as the cost of financing their debt stabilized further, according to the Engineering Employers Federation. The proportion of British companies reporting an increase in the cost of new borrowing dropped to 40 percent from 47 percent ... http://myfinlife.com/uk-manufacturers%e2%80%99-credit-constraints-%e2%80%98calm-down%e2%80%99-eef-says/ Australia’s economy has less scope than previously expected for “robust” growth that doesn’t stoke inflation, central bank Governor Glenn Stevens said. “Monetary policy must therefore be careful not to overstay a very expansionary setting,” Stevens told lawmakers at a parliamentary committee hearing in Canberra today. Policy ... http://myfinlife.com/australia-has-less-room-for-growth-without-inflation/ A Greek government inquiry uncovered a series of swaps agreements with securities firms that may have allowed it to mask its growing debts. Greece used the swaps to defer interest repayments by several years, according to a Feb. 1 report commissioned by the Finance Ministry in Athens. ... http://myfinlife.com/greek-probe-uncovers-%e2%80%98long-term-damage%e2%80%99-from-swaps-agreements/ Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said a U.S. economic recovery is “going to be a slow, trudging thing,” and that he “would get very concerned” if stock prices continue to fall. A drop in stock prices is “more than a warning sign,” Greenspan said yesterday on ... http://myfinlife.com/greenspan-sees-%e2%80%98slow%e2%80%99-recovery-is-%e2%80%98concerned%e2%80%99-if-stocks-drop/ Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero defended his country’s budget deficit and urged more U.S. investment in Spain during a meeting with U.S. business leaders, as investor concerns caused stocks to plummet in Spain. Zapatero told a closed-door gathering at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in ... http://myfinlife.com/prime-minister-defends-spain%e2%80%99s-deficit-to-us-business-leaders/